Headlines
Subscribe to the RSS feedYoung filmmakers join Savage Film's talent pool
Savage Film producer Bart Van Langendonck is in Cannes to present his Brussels-based production outfit’s new three-year slate. Besides brand new projects from the directors the company started with five years ago (i.e. Michaël R. Roskam and Bram Van Paesschen), young filmmakers such as Hans Van Nuffel, Matthias Schoenaerts and Robin Pront are now joining the producer's growing talent pool to develop their own feature-length projects.
Equator is the second feature by Hans Van Nuffel, the 2011 European Film Award® Discovery of the Year winner (for Oxygen). The Faithful (Le fidèle) is the second feature film project from Oscar® nominated director Michaël R. Roskam (Bullhead), while Franky will be the directorial debut of critically acclaimed Flemish actor Matthias Schoenaerts.
Tel Aviv honours Epilogue
Manno Lanssens’ documentary Epilogue has received an honourable mention at DocAviv, Tel Aviv’s International Documentary Film Festival (3-12 May). The film's depiction of the emotive theme of euthanasia has clearly struck a chord with audiences and critics alike as the film continues to receive worldwide acclaim.
Characterised by its unique approach, Epilogue evokes the dilemmas that rise when the end of life is near. In his film, Manno Lanssens captures a process for which there are no guidelines but only questions without answers.
Empire of Dust top of the class at Docville
At the closing ceremony of this year’s International Documentary Festival DOCVILLE, Bram Van Paesschen’s Empire of Dust has been awarded the SCAM Award for Best Belgian Documentary. The young director’s third passage at the festival marks his third prize, as he already received a special mention at DOCVILLE in both 2005 and 2008. After Empire of Dust, Van Paesschen is currently working on Welcome to Chocolate City, the third instalment in a documentary triptych.
In Empire of Dust, two men representing two different cultures clash in the dust of the former Belgian colony, the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Waiting named top doc in Istanbul
Bülent Öztürk’s new documentary, Waiting, has won the Award for Best Documentary at the TRT Documentary Days in Istanbul (3-7 May). The doc, about the impact of the October 2011 earthquake in east Turkey, was nominated for the national competition of the festival.
A jury of Turkish directors, film critics and academics gave Waiting the prestigious award, worth 30,000 Turkish Lira (€12,800). It’s not a first for Öztürk in Istanbul – in 2010 he won second prize at the TRT fest with his documentary Talking Stones of Bakacik.
Brussels design for Montreal poster
The official poster for this year’s Montreal World Film Festival (23 August-3 September) has been designed by Belgian artist Amira Daoudi. With her artwork, the Brussels-based graphic designer won the worldwide contest launched earlier this year. Daoudi, no stranger to the Flemish audiovisual scene, has also worked with directors Michaël R Roskam, Gust Van den Berghe, Nicolas Provost and Nic Balthazar.
In January, the Montreal World Film Festival launched a competition open to artists worldwide, receiving a total of 203 submissions from 16 different countries. From the contributions, eight finalists were chosen by a jury after which the general public was asked to submit their votes.
Swiss Buyens-Chagoll Award for Snake Dance
Snake Dance, Manu Riche and Patrick Marnham’s documentary about the invention of the atomic bomb, has been awarded the Buyens-Chagoll Award, worth CHF5,000, at Switzerland’s Visions du Réel festival (20-27 April). The jury praised the film’s exceptional originality, its ethical and aesthetic values, and its unusual approach in tackling a subject like nuclear power without using any archive footage.
Snake Dance, which received its international premiere at Nyon’s Visions du Réel fest, revolves around the choices modern man has to make if he wishes to survive.
€5 million Screen Flanders fund launched
The Flanders government has announced the creation of Screen Flanders, a €5 million fund aimed at attracting international co-productions to the Flemish region. As an incentive to local spending, producers will be able to apply for up to €400,000. The new initiative is compatible with already existing support mechanisms such as the Belgian tax shelter.
With Screen Flanders, the Flanders government aims to provide additional financial support to productions with large expenditures in the Flemish region. This should encourage a rise in the number of co-productions shot and developed in Flanders and benefit the local film industry both in economic impact and cultural prestige.
A Flemish touch to Belgian festival bills
This week, the Open Doek Festival (20 – 29 April) kicked off in Turnhout, while Leuven is getting ready for the 8th edition of the International Documentary Festival DOCVILLE (27 April – 5 May). Both programs house a large selection of Flemish titles, ranging from Daniel Lambo’s Dry Branches of Iran to Berlinale attendees Anton Corbijn Inside Out andAsparragos.
For the eighth consecutive year, DOCVILLE highlights the best documentaries and awards prizes in various sections. This year, Flanders is well represented in its national competition with more than ten short and feature-length film titles.
Snake Dance and Empire of Dust to Nyon
Manu Riche & Patrick Marnham’s Snake Dance and Bram Van Paesschen’s Empire of Dust have been invited to the Etat d’Esprit section of the Visions du Réel International Film Festival (20-27 April) in Nyon, Switzerland. Both documentaries will compete for the festival’s Audience Award, worth more than €8,000.
Both documentaries are set in the Democratic Republic of Congo but take entirely different approaches. In Snake Dance, which premieres internationally in Nyon, director Manu Riche and English writer Patrick Marnham embark on a cross-cultural journey that retraces the events leading up to the making of the H-bomb. Through the writings of art historian Aby Warburg, Snake Dance composes a filmic essay of a world that now more than ever is on the verge of complete destruction.
Greetings from the Colony in competition at Hot Docs
Nathalie Borgers’ documentary Greetings from the Colony has been selected for Toronto’s Hot Docs Festival (26 April – 6 May), one of the world’s most prestigious documentary festivals. The 74-minute story brings to light one of the darker episodes in Belgium’s history, but it also has a strong personal dimension for Borgers herself as its plot revolves around the consequences of decisions made by her own grandfather.
When her grandfather served as a territorial agent in Rwanda, he conceived three children with a local woman. At the end of his term, however, he meets a young Belgian woman, marries her and returns to Belgium, abandoning his Rwandan wife and two sons. He chooses to bring only his daughter Suzanne, in the hope that he can give her a better life than what she faces in Rwanda.